Myriophyllum crispatum
Orchard Water-milfoilPerennial aquatic or marsh herb, stout; stems 25–60 cm tall, mostly 3–5(–9) mm diam., sparsely pubescent, the hairs simple, usually crisped, 0.2–0.25 mm long, rarely glabrous, rooting at nodes in fully emergent plants. Leaves dimorphic; submerged leaves in whorls of 5–8, ovate, 10–40 mm long, pectinate, with 12–20 pinnae; emergent leaves in whorls of 6–9, broadly lanceolate, 5–20 mm long, shortly pectinate, uppermost ones terete. Bracteoles of male flowers lanceolate to ovate, 0.6–0.7 mm long, entire; bracteoles of female flowers smaller; flowers sessile, solitary. Male flowers: sepals 4, ovate to oblong, 0.6–0.8 mm long; petals 4, 2–2.6 mm long, cream to reddish-brown or purplish, caducous; stamens 8. Female flowers: sepals and petals absent; ovary 4-celled, styles filiform, reflexed, stigmas white. Fruit cubiform, yellow-brown to deep red; mericarps cylindric, c. 1 mm long, prickly with sharp papillae, tapering slightly, apex obliquely truncate. Flowers mainly Oct.–Apr.
MuM, Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, RobP, MuF, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, MonT. Also WA, SA, Qld, NSW, ACT, Tas. Widespread throughout much of Victoria, particularly in drier areas, where found mostly in stagnant water and on mud.
Readily identified by the presence of crisped hairs on the stems and leaf-bases, a character occuring nowhere else in the genus (Orchard 1985).
Jeanes, J.A. (1996). Haloragaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 887–908. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Orchard, A.E. (1985). Myriophyllum (Haloragaceae) in Australasia. II. The Australian Species. Brunonia 8: 173–291.